A Jolly Corpse has revealed a release date for their long-in-development puzzle-platformer, Wyv and Keep. The co-op treasure-hunting game is coming to Desura (for Windows, Mac and Linux) on June 14 for $9.99 (or two licenses for $15). If you’re feeling impatient, you can nab the beta version right now, and it will automatically update to the full release on June 14. An Xbox Live Indie Games version will be available on or around June 14 (depending on the peer review process).

A team has also released a new trailer to celebrate the final release date. Take a minute (or three) to check out the various nouns and verbs that comprise Wyv and Keep in über dramatic fashion. You can also vote for it on Project Greenlight if you want to someday search for treasure on Steam.

After four years of development, Facepalm Games’ eerie clone-creating game, The Swapper, is arriving on Steam on May 30. You can witness the game’s unique clay-based stop-motion visuals in the new trailer, or check out our preview from PAX East.

Kickstarter has revolutionized the way indie games are financed, but with hundreds of games begging for your precious shillings, we’re highlighting the most promising games whose very development may hinge upon you opening up your pocketbook.

Okay, this installment of Kickstart This! isn’t exactly a Kickstarter campaign but instead focuses on Indiegogo, a close cousin of Kickstarter that follows a similar concept and essentially functions the same way. Enough words about the slight campaign differences though, let us talk about Fabled Vale. Beginning as a dream project of designer Jennifer Dawe who is known for her work on Aspereta and Illutia, and has been conceptualizing and producing assets for the past 5 years while searching for the right partner for the project. Now she’s teamed up with Cerulean Games, and they are seeking funding through the aforementioned Indiegogo campaign to get the project in motion.Read more

After a last-minute snafu delayed its XBLA release 2 weeks ago, Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine has a brand new release date. Pocketwatch Games stomped on all the bugs, and the game is set to be released this Friday. The 4-player heist game has been highly anticipated since stealing the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2010 GDC Independent Games Festival. It’s also available on Steam.

Kickstarter has revolutionized the way indie games are financed, but with hundreds of games begging for your precious shillings, we’re highlighting the most promising games whose very development may hinge upon you opening up your pocketbook.

Coming fresh off the steam of the successful Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey campaign, another beautiful fantasy adventure game starring a heroine appears! Realm’s vision comes from the art studio, Atomhawk Designs, who have contributed art assets and designs to games, such as Enslaved, Dead Island, and Mortal Kombat (9). This time, they’re looking to make their own adventure game to the tune of £195,000 (~$302,000 USD).

The story follows the adventure of a young girl, Sarina, and a golem, Toru, as they search for a cure for Sarina’s mother’s sickness. Although the time period is the far future, instead of highly advanced technology, players will be treated to lush landscapes of cities buried in natural foliage and strange wild creatures. They must utilize each protagonist’s abilities, including those derived from working together, to solve puzzles and traverse the dangerous world.

With less than two weeks to go, and about £54,000 pledged, the situation seems desperate, but we’ve witnessed Kickstarter miracles before. Atomhawk Designs are offering numerous rewards for each fantastically named tier, such as digital downloads, the game’s soundtrack, and T-shirts, art books, and more. For under the typical price of a AAA release, $53 (Digital Deluxe Elder), you can obtain all the digital pieces, things that normally come with a more expensive preorder. And the studio is now allowing backers to pledge a little extra to get specific items from higher tiers.

In today’s competitive gaming landscape gamers are constantly looking for an advantage. Whether it’s using a modded gamepad to improve your firing speed or lowering your graphic fidelity to a minimum in order to improve your FPS, there’s very little a gamer isn’t willing to do to get that edge.

Well, a recently funded Kickstarter project, the Stinky Footboard gaming pedal, promises to offer you that edge. The pedal finished slightly over its goal of $75,000 with a grand total of $79,562 pledged overall.

Modern games today have become obsessed with accessibility: Littered with tutorial prompts, guiding arrows dictating where to go, and the current objective jarringly flashing on screen. La-Mulana looks to jump back a few generations when these trends weren’t the norm.

Initially designed to imitate the look and feel of games on the old MSX systems, this remake has enhanced the color pallet and sprite resolutions from the original Japanese version (released in 2005) while keeping the old retro-style difficulty intact. Starting a new game throws you right into La-Mulana’s two-dimensional open world with no indication of where to go and little back story on the main character Lemenza, besides the notion that he’s prepared to explore the ruins of La-Mulana. From the beginning it’s emphasized that it’s up to Lemenza to explore and scrutinize the surrounding areas for clues on how to progress. It creates an experience that may be intimidating for some, while other experienced and patient gamers looking for a challenge will find it refreshing.

One could accurately sum up La-Mulana as a puzzle adventure-platformer, and it wonderfully blends the genres together. While Lemenza is able to explore a good portion of the ruins initially, certain paths only become accessible as various power-ups and other items are obtained via solving puzzles or defeating bosses. The puzzles aren’t presented in any particular way, but rather are integrated seamlessly into parts of the ruins. Practically every interconnected screen the player travels through has some secret to be unearthed once a section of the ruin is solved. Read more

I do not care for the term Metroidvania as a genre, let us call them exploration platformers or something to that effect. Naming a genre by mashing together names of the games in the category is akin to calling every first person shooter a “Doom of Duty”. However despite the terminology that irks me, I absolutely adore this type of game and I am always excited to see a new one spring up with Rex Rocket by Rob Maher and Tyler Bud being no exception.

I originally picked up on Rex Rocket over at the Pixel Art section of Reddit, where artist Rob Maher was showcasing a small set of eye catching WIP shots of his pixel art. This eventually led to a trailer fully selling me on the concept featuring some neat looking combat tricks, stunning lighting effects, and one of my favorites wall jumping! To add to the package the duo brought on the talented chiptune artist Saskrotch to pull together a fitting soundtrack and from the sounds of the trailer it’s going to be excellent.